I want this line to be about the various things that some of us grew up, if not poor, at least financially strapped, with as food. I was in a family of a military enlisted man with four really big (not fat, mind you, just really tall and energetic) girls. I often wonder what Mom (a petite woman) thought when she looked up at us; already taller than her when we first hit double digits. How she fed us is not quite beyond me, I remember it well. So those of you who grew up eating budget foods, what did your parents do?

One thing was during lent, on Fridays, it was tuna casserole. My mom's a great cook, but this stuff was awful. The white meat canned tuna we can get now was not in existance then, it was gray, oily, stinky stuff. It gave me a hatred of fish that wasn't overcome until I was almost 30 and found myself in Hawaii and loving fish, even eating raw tuna on a regular basis.

I cant remember specifically what my parents did, but I do remember when I was newly married, still a student, living in a city far away from any family and friends , and my wife ( the only one working at the time) making about $6 an hour ( in the early 90's), I remember we budgeted ourselves to about $3 a dinner. We had spaghetti with jarred sauce 3 times a week ( Jarred sauce $1, spaghetti 25 cents). Another day, we would get the lipton broccoli and cheddar rice packet ( you know, the one you add a tbs of margarine and a cup of water to). Id cut up a fresh broccoli and put it in. (Rice packet 75 cents, broccoli $1.25) We would ride to this discount produce place about 40 minutes away and buy about $15 worth of fruits and veggies ( which was a real lot from this place). Id make a few soups ( split pea, vegetable). And we survived. I know my mom used to make macaroni and cheese for the family, but everyone liked theirs different so it became a project. MY brother and father would have tuna fish, mushrooms and cheddar in theirs. Me, a vegetarian, would have the same without the tuna. My sister only liked american cheese and no mushrooms, and my mom was always , i mean always on a diet, She would banana, cottage cheese, 1 slice of that crappy processed american cheese and 1/2 slice of bread.

My mom used reconstituted dried milk for cereal, cooking, etc. I remember when I was 10 or so and she switched to fresh milk - we didn't like it at first! It took some getting used to I also remember a lot of homemade soups, stews, and casseroles.

__________________The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again. ~ George Miller

My dad was a coal miner and my mom a school teacher. Teachers didn't make much back then, so when the miners were on strike (and they had some long ones back then), money was really tight.
They had small neighborhood markets who would let a regular customer run a bill, especially when the miners were on strike, and that was a lot of help.

We ate things like Spanish Rice, slumgullion, tomato soup with toasted cheese sandwiches, SOS and tuna casserole. Dad would have time to fish, so sometimes we'd have fried bass or blue gill, a real treat for mom and me. He didn't like fish, just liked catching them, so mom would fry up a hamburger for him.
We always had Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandpa was general superintendent of all his company's coal mines down here, so they always had plenty of food on the table.

You know, the only thing that bothered me was having to brush my teeth with baking soda when we ran out of toothpaste.

Oh yeah...the dreaded S.O.S. I mean, my mom did her best, but chipped beef creamed with that dry reconstitued milk is just not that good. And canned peas on the side.

During my early married years (and pre-children), I would sometimes have to make the decision between taking the cat to the vet and eating pancakes, because Bisquick was the only thing in the house. The kitty went the vet, we choked down pancakes---for days at a time. Whew. Glad those days are over!

We ate whatever was on sale that week. I learned to enjoy organ meats and we just ate whatever was put in front of us. We never did without, and Dad worked on the railroad so sometimes there were nice treats that came home. (Crab or shrimp from the coast) Those were portioned out VERY carefully let me tell you! We had a garden too, and even though we lived in the city, Dad found a way to grow tomatoes and other veggies. Mom never got to can many though as her rotten kids would sneak out and pick the tomatoes before they were ripe!

__________________You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. Robin Williams Alix

My mom would make "grout," I think the name was a corruption of a Norwegian food (a cream dish), not the stuff used in tiling! Basically, it was creamed rice, put on a plate, with butter, cinnamon, and sugar, with a bit of milk on top. I remember many suppers of that, LOVED it. We also had milk toast, and many, many suppers of macaroni an ring baloney. We also had many suppers of potato soup.
Today, I am sitting in the apartment, with no cash, nothing really in the fridge, do have some chicken breasts to thaw later. May make some kind of biscuit to go with coffee. I try to keep the basics in my pantry, so can come up with something. Don't really feel like tuna this early, though! I do have some jam, so biscuits it is... but no milk... hmm...

My mom used to make "goulash" for us. It was basically ground beef, chopped onion and green peppers, all sauteed until the meat was brown. Then she added a can of Campbell's tomato soup and cooked elbow macaroni. I still make it when I need comfort food - but minus the green peppers, which I really don't like.
She also used to make cooked potatoes and green beans in a white sauce. That was sometimes the main dish. And of course Spanish rice, tuna casserole, spaghetti with meat sauce, and yes, SOS. YUK!

__________________"First we eat, then we do everything else." M.F.K. Fisher